Published on: January 27, 2022
With brief, occasional, italicized and sometimes gratuitous commentary…
• The Indianapolis Star reports that "Hy-Vee, which operates around 285 stores across the Midwest, plans to open a store in Zionsville," a suburb of Indianapolis.
It will be the company's first Indiana store; late last year, it was reported that it planned to expand outside the Midwest for the first time, with plans to build seven new stores in Indiana, Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky, in 2023, as well as build a Tennessee distribution facility to service those units.
According to the story, Hy-Vee's "plans call for a roughly 150,000-square-foot store at the 26-acre site."
• Brookshire Grocery Co. and Reasor’s LLC yesterday announced "the finalization of their agreement first announced in November. With the confirmed support from the Reasor’s Employee Stock Ownership Program (ESOP), Reasor’s stores are now a new division of BGC. These stores will continue to serve the greater Tulsa area under the Reasor’s name and with their incredible team. With Reasor's locations and more than 2,000 people team, BGC now has more than 200 stores with more than 19,000 employee-partners serving in four states."
• The Wall Street Journal this morning reports that "Costco Wholesale Corp. shareholders voted Thursday for a proposal that called on the retailer to set out plans to reach net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050 or sooner, in line with scientific recommendations to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The resolution included difficult-to-track emissions in Costco’s supply chain, known as Scope 3 emissions, which the company said were the 'overwhelming bulk' of its emissions.
"The company’s board opposed the proposal. 'While we seek and will continue to seek to influence our suppliers to reduce their emissions, we cannot directly control their actions,' Costco said in its statement against the resolution.
"Shareholder resolutions aren’t legally binding in the U.S., but they can put pressure on companies to make changes and raise the possibility that investors could vote to remove executives if they refuse to take action."
• CNBC reports that "Lowe’s will soon test a new offering: A Petco shop inside its stores where customers can buy dog food and cat litter, even visit with a vet, while shopping for paint and other supplies for home projects.
"The two retailers announced a deal Thursday to pilot the store-in-store locations. The first one will open near San Antonio in early February, with 14 additional locations planned in Texas, North Carolina and South Carolina by the end of March.
"The companies declined to share financial terms or the length of the deal."
And just like that, retailers with pet food departments suddenly have new competition.
• The Washington Post reports that Amazon this week "endorsed legislation by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) to end the federal prohibition on pot … the first time it has backed a GOP-led bill on the issue."
The story suggests that this has less to do with a desire to sell marijuana than a desire to "widen its applicant pool by helping to ease drug testing requirements and assist with employee retention."
• The Wall Street Journal reports that "Federal regulators proposed measures that would significantly increase their visibility into private-equity funds and some hedge funds, the first in a range of plans to expand oversight of private markets.
"The Securities and Exchange Commission voted 3-1 to issue a proposal Wednesday that would increase the amount and timeliness of confidential information that private-equity and hedge funds report to the agency on a document known as Form PF. A main goal, Chairman Gary Gensler said, is to allow regulators to better understand the operations and strategies of private funds for purposes of gauging their implications for financial stability."
This is interesting to me because of how many private equity funds invest in retailers. I like it when institutions are forced to be transparent … especially where money is involved, I like to know where the money is coming from.
